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emmkayt's review
3.0
Celia Fremlin is a British crime writer who was published many times over four decades, but seems not to be in much current circulation, based on how many of her novels are now 'reference only' in the stacks of my library system. I hadn't read her before, but enjoyed this tale from 1990 (though it feels like a bit of an amalgam - sensibilities of an earlier time, together with an effort to stay current, rather like later Agatha Christie). She paints a wonderful picture of the tenants of a cheap London rental home to which the protagonist, recently separated Alice, comes to stay. The central tension is around an anxious and paranoid young woman, Mary, who has a secret past. The pacing was a little off, but it was a good read, reminiscent of Ruth Rendell.
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